If you run a church or business as a Faith Leader, you are probably familiar with contracts. My ministry base and home church, in Southfield, Michigan, is on a 110-acre site. We have lighting contracts, electrical contracts, water contracts, and just about every kind of contract you could imagine. A contract is an agreement that covers a specific time between two parties to service one another. In most cases, they provide a service for us, and we pay them. However, if either party involved in a contract is unhappy because the terms are not being met, they can scrap the contract.
Covenants
God works with covenants, not contracts. While people today have some understanding of contracts, most don’t know much about covenants. The word covenant means testament; we use the term Old Covenant synonymously with Old Testament, and the New Covenant is the New Testament. Covenants between tribes, families, or individuals remain effective for the lifetime of those who entered the covenant and are not intended to be scrapped. For example, biblical marriage is a covenant designed to last a lifetime. Malachi 2:14-15 describes the marriage covenant: Yet ye say Wherefore? Because the LORD hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously: yet is she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant. And did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit. And wherefore one? That he might seek a godly seed. Therefore, take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth.
So, the intent of the marriage covenant is for one man and one woman to serve and honor one another until they die. God never intended marriage to be a temporary agreement that could be jettisoned if one party’s terms were not met. Throughout the Old Testament, God made covenants (not contracts) with people, and God always kept His side of the agreement because God cannot lie. The Old Testament is a covenant with the Father. The New Testament is a covenant with the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the book of Acts, the church entered a covenant with the Holy Ghost.
What it Means to You
While the entire New Testament is a covenant, Galatians 3 capsulizes what God has agreed to for our sake in this New Covenant. Galatians 3:7-9 establishes that we are children of Abraham: Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed. So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.
The word heathen is ethnos in Greek. So, that phrase could read: foreseeing that God would justify people with white skin, black skin, brown skin, yellow skin, red skin, and any other ethnic group there is through faith.
Faith is belief, persuasion, trust, and assurance. So, anyone from any nation or ethnic group who trusts in Jesus is made a child of Abraham and is also blessed with Abraham. This means God’s covenant with Abraham applies to you and anyone who puts their faith in Jesus Christ.
What You Share with Abraham
The list of what you should partake of as Abraham’s seed and an heir according to the promise (Galatians 3:29) is more extensive than I can fit in this short article, but it’s worth studying because you can believe God to do for you what He did for Abraham. For example, you can expect to live a long life and be blessed in everything you do. Genesis 24:1 says Abraham was old, and well stricken in age: and the LORD had blessed Abraham in all things.
What is included in all things? Your health will be blessed. You will be blessed with peace, joy, and comfort. God will bless you with prosperity and wisdom. You can believe God to make wise financial decisions. Abraham was probably the wealthiest man of his day, and it happened because of His covenant with God. Abraham won every battle, even against terrible odds, because of His covenant with God.
Stop Worrying and Start Calling Upon Your Covenant
Faith Leader, every covenant in the Bible was sealed with blood, and our covenant as believers is sealed in the precious blood of Jesus. Jesus’ blood was shed once, but our benefits go on forever if we remain in relationship with Him. As a part of the New Covenant, you also get the blessings of the Old that God gave Abraham, including long life, health, prosperity, peace, family, honor, and overall winning. You have winning in your covenant, so stop thinking about failure. Stop worrying about “what if this doesn’t work?” and start calling upon your covenant as Abraham’s seed under the precious blood of Jesus. God always keeps His covenant!
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